vegetable ivory tree

English

Noun

vegetable ivory tree (plural vegetable ivory trees)

1. A tropical South American palm, Phytelephas macrocarpa, whose seed is used as a substitute for ivory; the tagua palm.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     The vegetation had again changed, and only the vegetable ivory tree remained, with a great profusion of wonderful orchids, among which I learned to recognize the rare Nuttonia Vexillaria and the glorious pink and scarlet blossoms of Cattleya and odontoglossum.